Triumph

Dissertation defended.

Such number. So meaningless. Very congratulatory.

It's an old game. How it looks and sounds is just how it is.

While you're playing the game, if you bring up the menu (with save / load / quit / etc. on it), you can click Preferences, and then click a box so that the game will ask you about switching resolutions when you open it.

Two numbers matter when shaping creations. There's you skill with a type of shaping (e.g. Magic Shaping), and your skill with particular creation (e.g. your level in Artila). You raise shaping skill with the skill points you earn from leveling up. However, canisters are how you raise your skill with different creations. For example, a Create Artila canister will increase your ability at creating Artilas. You'll need to find a Create Vlish canister to make Vlish. Keep exploring the island and one is sure to turn up!

I hope that clarifies things!

For comparison, consider the conversations with Crowley and Miranda if you fail to give Monarch's papers to the Shapers:

Crowley:

And Miranda:

Telling Miranda you "lost" the papers sets flag 42,13 to 5, and then Crowley checks that flag and sees it's greater than or equal to 5. Crowley also checks to see if flag 100,8 is less than 2. In the Rivergate script, when you tell Alwan you helped Moseh, the game sets flag 100,8's value to 2. So, Crowley's text above is contingent on BOTH failing to help Moseh AND failing to deliver the papers. Notice how there's no comparable check in Greta's conversation. The Rebels may not trust you, but they won't give up on you, whereas you MUST do something big for the Shapers in either Ilya or Aziraph to convince them you're useful.

What I want to know is whether, after you fail the Shapers in Illya and Aziraph, you are locked out of the Shaper endgame. Will all the Shapers in Burwood and beyond automatically be hostile to you?

Here's the full script from the encounter in the screenshot above.

From looking in other scripts, I *think* gf(100,0) might be reputation, with the script giving either section 5 or section 6 depending how low or high that reputation is.

The answer is yes, because they are different goals. The Shapers want you to fix Moseh. The Rebels want you to kill one of the Barrier Zone defenders. That means if you fix Moseh and kill Eliza or Shaftoe, and make sure to report back to both the Shapers and the Rebels about your "success" before trying to leave the province, they'll both be happy with you, you double-crossing no-good swindler.

The Army of the Tennessee.

(For anyone wondering, the Army of THE Tennessee was a Union army named for the Tennessee River; nearly all Union armies were named after rivers. There was also a Confederate army called the Army of Tennessee, named for the state.)

As Slarty so punningly suggests, I studied history. My dissertation looks at the  wartime experiences / ideology / attitudes of junior officers in one of the Union armies in the Civil War.

The most fun I've seen at dissertation defenses is when the members of the committee start arguing with each other while the doctoral candidate quietly watches. Well, that and when the random professor who wasn't on the committee but showed up anyway asks a question completely out of left field that has absolutely no bearing on the dissertation, and you get to watch the candidate try to figure out how to diplomatically say "That's a dumb question that makes no sense in this context."

Earlier today, six years and month or so after I started my PHD program, I finished the complete draft of my dissertation and sent it out to my committee. My major professor has already looked at it and said he likes it, so really nothing should stop me from graduating with my PHD this December (in my department, the dissertation defense is largely a formality, and if my major professor like my dissertation - as he does - then I will pass). The past several years have been really rough, physically and emotionally, and I've often doubted whether this day would ever come. But here it is!
 

If you are playing a loyalist shaper, you basically just take care of the island's problems and move on, leaving stubborn derpy dopey Lankan to stew in the swamp. If you have picked up the weird canister in Diwaniya's caves, avoid Lankan. Visiting him with it will force you to either give it to him or fight him.

2 hours ago, rist said:

The link to Level 1 and 2 spell locations (cheapest/earliest) links to A:EftP info rather than A:CS.

You are mistaken. That link is absolutely for information from A2CS. Note, for example, how it lists Egli as a place to learn spells.

No.

Moderator note: Please don't necro old threads that no one has posted in for literally 10 years. Instead, start a new topic and, if necessary, include a link to the old one. Thank you.

Although it gets into the dicey question of game mechanics versus flavor (since the former do not reliably representing the latter), I have wondered if it would be reasonable to suppose the canisters on Sucia were different than those found in subsequent games. Although the PC in G1 is noted to grow more distant and aloof, he never experiences "canister madness" comparable to what we see in G2 / 3 / 4, where he flies into a rage and starts and attacking someone. Possibly this is because Jeff just hadn't thought of the idea until G2.   Perhaps, though, it's because the OG Sucia canisters created by Danette and company were somehow purer or better made than the imitations created later based on imperfect knowledge passed down by the drayks, and thus the G1 canisters did not inflict the same level of damage to the PC's mental health as later canisters would do.

Oh, good catch!  Yes, Burkes, is explicitly identified as another lifecrafter.

You've got all the ones I can think of.

Note that just like Litalia, Greta was also Shaper-trained, even if she bailed on them before becoming a full Shaper.

I don't know if they count, but there's your whole party of prospective, soon-to-be lifecrafters that gets massacred at the start of G4. They haven't used the Geneforge yet, though, so maybe they don't count.

If you're going to put Bennhold on the list, then I suppose you could also put a question mark beside Monarch's name, since it's possible he was a rogue lifecrafter.

Really, though, Shaila and Jared seems to be the only "true" examples of definite rebel-forged lifecrafters that I can recall.

Your build looks okay. The strategy central thread is a place where we've collected a lot of info people have written about this game, and it includes links to a couple threads discussing servile builds at great length, as well as other discussions of game mechanics that you might find helpful. It's been a while since I played G4 so I don't quite recall exactly where you might be stuck, but in general, when you're stuck in a Geneforge game, it's a good idea to look around for other paths (sometimes an alternative path within a zone, sometimes proceeding to the goal through an entirely different zone). Jeff was really good about providing both combat and stealth / leadership / mechanics means to accomplish nearly any mission.

Wow,  I fail to check the forums for one day and this is the result. *facepalm* Tut tut.

Hahahaha! These had me in stitches! They're ridiculously, hilariously, amazing! Thank you for the good laugh. 

1. I have no clue what "trainer mod" you're talking about.

2. What exactly does the mod in this thread DO?

Wow. Three of the five worst rated games are Avadon.

Is there anyone else *cough*besidesme*cough*who hasn't finished Avadon 3 because they just got bored?

Hahahahaha! First, wow, that's a lot of guesses! Second, wow, we had some of the same ideas for this one. My three guesses for that one were "rainbow road," "pearly gate," and "bright idea." I don't think I would have gotten to "milky" as a synonym of "opalescent" in a hundred years, though. Nicely done!

Congrats, Slarty!

How did you (Diki AND Slarty!) connect milky and opalescent??? I mean, doesn't milky = white, and opalescent = multicolored?

Aging SW population speculation: I wonder how much this had to do with who Jeff's games appeal to? I mean, I can see adults who grew up playing games in DOS or on the SNES finding more lasting appeal in Spiderweb games than kids who grew up playing the PS2 or something. The market for Jeff's games still exists, it's just gotten older. Or maybe it's just that message board forums like this one is are now an old-school aspect of the internet that don't appeal to the "kids these days" as much other forms of social media?

Birth order: what is it about SW that attracts oldest-children in particular?

Oh, the driving question! LOL. I really wanted an option for "Cautious and still unsafe" but it wasn't available.

Hogwarts houses: wow! That's a crazy majority favorite. Why?

59 responses? Excellent! I feel like the forums are a bit quieter than they were five years ago, so it's neat to see there are still people around to put up a similar response total, even if it doesn't manifest in terms of number of posts in General per day.